Everything was Pleasant
by ValerieViolette
Summary: The final companion piece to "Everything was Funny" and "Everything was Tragic", focusing on Scorpius Malfoy.


The blinking lights below him were mesmerizing. White lights zooming by, red lights alerting of a stop, yellow lights flashing with every turn: _mesmerizing_. He watched them as he leaned on the bridge's railing, staring out into the dark night. White stars were sprinkled across the dark sky. The moon was hidden behind the clouds that littered the sky. He stared down at the cars zooming by, unaware of his presence.

Rummaging in his pocket, he took out a pack of cigarettes. He raised one to his lips and took a long drag and continued to stare at the passing cars. He let out the smoke, it drifting upwards towards the sky. The sound of the cares soon faded into the background he began to think about everything that led him to this moment.

Everything started when he was three. He couldn't even remember his father: that was the sad thing. He could laugh or smile whenever his mother mentioned a former joke or thing he used to do with his father, but he could never remember what he looked like. He looked at pictures, but they didn't mean anything to him. Pictures were just a frozen moment, framed and put on display. He wanted to have his own memory of his father. That wasn't possible, however. He apparently looked like his father when he was younger, with his blond hair and snarky attitude. Now, he was the opposite. His blond hair turned a brunette-brown; his silver eyes darkening to a dark grey color; his snarky attitude changing to a calm, dejected mindset. Those were some of the things he didn't like about himself. He saw the look in his mother's eyes, even when he was young, as she saw the changes in his appearance. That, his mother's discontent, caused his own feelings of self-deprecation.

He went to the graveyard where his relatives were buried. He sat there for hours on end, just staring down at the cold, grey stones. He read the words on each gravestone: "_A beloved wife, mother and sister_", _"A cherished husband and father_", "_A treasured husband, father and nephew_". His mother told him about his grandparents: about their misfortunes and missteps, their loving care, their personality. His grandmother was a good person by what his mother told him; his grandfather the same. His father…he was a different story. He had stopped asking about his father by the time he was nine years old. He knew what that did to his mother. He even tried not to mention him on the day he first left for Hogwarts. He saw all the other kids' parents and siblings, crying them goodbye. He didn't have that.

He always felt somewhat of a disappointment to his mother in certain ways. He didn't get into Slytherin unlike the forefathers of the Malfoy and Greengrass family; he was put into Ravenclaw. He didn't excel in Quidditch like his father, nor did he in his classes. There was a notorious fight between him and his mother on the day that his O.W.L.S came. "_How were you sorted into _Ravenclaw_ if you can't even get an 'Acceptable' in any of your classes?_" He never talked angrily to her. She the only thing he had.

He another long drag from his cigarette while staring out into oblivion. He didn't know what he thought of his mother at this moment in his life.

She was his mother, so he had to love her…but he didn't know if he did. She raised him mostly on her own after his father's funeral, given him food, a roof over his head for seventeen years of his life. But she also caused him to be the person he was…which wasn't a good thing. Endless amounts of pressure to become something impossible, constant comparisons to his father, his nemesis, Albus Potter, harsh criticisms of the smallest mistake. He was a judgmental and dejected person whenever came to certain things now. He couldn't even take in the slightest bit of happiness or cheeriness because what she made him believe. He tried to run away many times when he was a teenager. Not returning home once the school year at Hogwarts was over, taking an adlib trip around the English countryside. She always found him though.

But with his mother's harsh teachings and criticisms came a small silver lining: he met his fiancée. She was like him: a tormented and dejected soul. She had the similar situation with her father. They had met the first day that he was officially an adult, away from his mother. He was randomly wandering around the dark streets of Diagon Alley. The shops were closed up in the midnight hour. He didn't know what he was doing or where he was going. He was just…rejoicing in his freedom. He reckoned he was a humorous sight: a seventeen year-old boy, standing in the middle of an empty street at the dead of night, smiling like an idiot.

She saw him that night, through her room in the Leaky Cauldron. He didn't meet her until the following week when he was passed out, drunk, in an alleyway. Her name was Gabrielle Delacour "_the second_" she clarified righteously when they introduced themselves to each other. Her mother, Gabrielle Delacour, died during childbirth without marrying her father. She was named after her, but that hadn't changed her father's feelings about her. He thought that she was less loveable since her mother died while giving birth to her. She was never truly loved by her father, she told him. The two of them fell for each other over the course of a year. They weren't really suited for each other, both of them knew this.

They looked like a good match from the outside; from the inside, it was a different story. They broke up many times, only to get back together a month later. Their relationship hit a huge milestone, however. Gabrielle was pregnant. He proposed to her and she accepted.

Their relationship during the period of her pregnancy and the months thereafter was great and seemingly perfect. Their daughter Phoenix was born…and with that spectacular event, everything came tumbling down. They had more fights and broke up many times over the course of their relationship. They stayed engaged for six years, however, for the sake of their daughter. They simply thought that their relationship would get better: it didn't.

One day, while coming back to the apartment, which they were close to losing due to lack of rent payment, with their daughter, he came across a letter on the kitchen counter.

_Scorpius,_

_ I don't think I can do this any longer. I love you, you know that. It's just…I can't do it anymore. The constant fights, the break-ups and the make-ups. I see Phoenix every day and feel like such a _failure_ of a mother because of…everything. I'm not good enough. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because I grew up without a mother, that I'm not good enough at doing simple things without getting angry. I just _can't_._

_ I'm sorry, but I have to leave. I can't stand to stay around, to see the eventual disappointment in her eyes. Her disappointment in _me_! In me, Scorpius! I know what you must think of me. That I'm running away, that I'm horrible for leaving Phoenix without a mother. And I know how horrible I am for doing this to her. But_

"_But you can't stand it!_" Scorpius cursed as he crumbled the letter in his hand before throwing it halfway across the room. Phoenix was in her room, playing with some of old toys. Scorpius was livid, furious as what he just read. Without even thinking, he stormed out of the kitchen and to the bedroom that he formally shared with Gabrielle. There wasn't a single sign that a women lived in the apartment. He threw open the wardrobe: empty of Gabrielle's clothes. He threw open the drawers in the small dresser: none of her underwear or clothes. He couldn't help but slam everything about as he tried to express his anger. He sat on the edge of his bed, his face in his hands, his heart pounding in his chest from the intensity of his movements.

"_Papa…_"

Scorpius lifted his head from his hands, turning to see Phoenix standing in the doorway of the bedroom. Her brown-blonde hair was in a badly done ponytail. "What is it, Phi?"

"Why were you so loud?" she quietly asked.

Slowly, Scorpius let out a long sigh. "Come here, Phi."

Phoenix stood in the doorway, hesitating to leave her spot. "Come here, Phi. Papa wants to talk to you." Phoenix slowly walked toward her father. "_Ah!_" Scorpius said as he pulled her onto his lap. "What's with your hair? It looks all weird," Scorpius said as he tried to undo ponytail.

"I was trying to make it look like granmmie's hair," Phoenix said with a pout.

Scorpius stopped with her hair. "'Grammie? Which grandmother?_"_

"Grammie Gabi," Phoenix admitted. "I saw a picture of Grammie Gabi and I wanted my hair to look like hers." Scorpius continued to undo the ponytail, untangling the mass of hair that wrapped around the black band.

"Next time, tell me and I'll help you," Scorpius told her, handing back the black band. He was quiet for a second while looking down at his daughter. "Phi…do you want to go somewhere?"

"Somewhere? Where?"

"Just somewhere, on an adventure!"

"Adventure…?"

"_Papa_," came a quiet voice. Scorpius quickly drew himself away from his distant stare and turned around. Phoenix was standing behind Scorpius, rubbing her left eye, holding a stuffed toy.

"What is it, Phi? Did you just wake up?"

"Uh-huh," she answered as she stopped rubbing her eye. "What were you doing, Papa?"

"…Nothing," Scorpius answered as he threw his cigarette down, stomping it out. "What are you doing awake? You need to go back to sleep, so you'll be ready in the morning."

"Where are we going, Papa?"

Scorpius scratched his neck uncomfortably. "You're going to meet your Grammie Tori, Phi."

"_Really?_" Phoenix started to jump up and down, smiling. "I can meet Grammie Tori?"

"Only if you go back to sleep," Scorpius said. "We're almost back to where I used to live."

"_Okay!_"

Phoenix ran back to Scorpius's car as quick as a bullet, dropping her stuffed toy in the process. Smiling lightly to himself, Scorpius picked up the toy only to end up staring at it for a long while. The green doll had a stitch in it side. "_You once started to cry hysterically because you thought you killed your dragon doll!_" Scorpius stared down at the green, dragon doll. "_Your father kept laughing at you while I tried to calm you down. That is my favorite memory of our family, you know that? Everything was so…simple. Your father was still alive, our relationship wasn't messed up in any way and we had you. You were our little angel…remember that._"

Still staring down at the green dragon, Scorpius turned around. He looked up and saw the cars zooming by. Their lights were mesmerizing…pleasant to watch. He began to remember something his mother told him. "_Your father told me, in his final letter, that everything was funny if you thought about it. And, Scorpius, that is true. Although, you can't find any sort of comedy from a tragedy, there are things in this world that are funny when you think about it. And from seeing that comedy, you can find the pleasant side of things in that seem tragic or sad. You should remember that, Scorpius._"

"I remember that, Mum…_Thank you_…"


End file.
